Upgrading to 6700k, are these the best options?

jtpetch · Jun 7, 2016

Hi, so I've had my PC for a while, and I'm looking to upgrade it soon.
I'm going to go for a 6700k, which seems like the best (not ridiculously expensive) CPU for gaming and such right now. With that, however, I will also need a new MOBO and new ram.

So, I was thinking something like this.
And this is my current build, which I will simply be upgrading, not replacing since everything else is fine.

The changed parts are:
CPU from FX-6300 to i7 6700k
The MOBO from a GA-970A-UD3p to a GA-710X-Gaming 5
The ram from two sets of different branded 2x4gb DDR3-1600 sticks to one set of 2x8gb DDR4-2400 sticks
(Also, goodness DDR4 has gotten cheap quickly!)

So, would those parts be good enough upgrades for the 6700k?
I'm on less of a budget than when I first built this pc, but still nothing too ridiculous.
Also, I intend to either upgrade to a GTX 1080 (non-founders of course), or one of the Vega line cards when it comes out, so would everything in my build support either of those? (I don't see why not, but it's good to confirm before buying)

Also, not sure to ask this here or the MS forums, but will I need to reinstall Win10? And will I lose my license (forcing me to buy another one)?
I started with an OEM Win8.1 CD, and updated to 10 via the updater that was forced upon all of us, in the taskbar.

Thank you!
(Also, disregard the compatibility notes at the bottom of the PCPArtpicker pages, everything does indeed fit nicely.)

Ecky · Jun 7, 2016

I think you've made some excellent selections, both in your past and future build.

You could safely go a bit cheaper on the motherboard. Generally speaking, Skylake draws so little power that in terms of overclocking, there's very little practical difference between the cheapest and most expensive Z170 boards. You're mostly buying a different set of 3rd-party controllers for audio, USB, etc., and not any performance difference. I recommend mATX, since it's becoming more standard. You might choose to move to a smaller case in the future, and overall it's really a more flexible size. It's also starting to become the norm, so you end up paying more to get the same features in the larger ATX form factor. I'm sure you'll be very pleased with the Gaming 5 if you choose to go with it anyway, though.

There's also a little bit of performance to be gained with slightly faster RAM. 2800 is probably the sweet spot.

rhysiam · Jun 7, 2016

That's a solid upgrade for sure. A couple of notes I would have:

- You'll absolutely need to reinstall the OS and will need a new Win10 license. You can't swap out the mobo and keep the same license. I know you're recycling some components, but essentially it's a new computer.
- That PSU you have isn't great. Fine for the build as-is, but I'd be budgeting a new PSU if you're moving to a top end GPU. Technically that one would be okay, but if you're spending 500+ on a GPU, it should really be pairedwith a good quality power supply.
- You haven't listed your monitor resolution. There's very little point going with a premium GTX 1080 unless you have a high frame rate and/or high resolution monitor.
- Also, you're probably aware already, but assuming this is a gaming build you're going to see very little gain from the platform upgrade until you upgrade the GPU as well.
- Finally, you're aware I guess that 6700K doesn't offer much over the 6600K for gaming at present? If you're working towards a premium build then you can make a case for the 6700K as a long-term investment, but right now the bang-for-buck pick is still the 6600K.

jtpetch · Jun 7, 2016

@Ecky
Ok, thank you. Yeah, I don't intend to go to a smaller case in the future, don't really have a need to, but that's something to consider.
2800 ram, eh? And here I thought 2400 was fast, but I am coming from DDR3-1600 lol. I'll look into that for sure.

jtpetch · Jun 7, 2016

@rhysiam Hum, well that's a bit disappointing. I've done a bit more research, though, and it seems like some folks are having success installing Win10, not activating immediately, and activating after getting in the OS with the automated phone service. I've had to do this a few times before with this PC (once when I had to recover a corrupted BIOS), and it seemed to be alright with that.
I'll wait until after I get everything to buy a license, and give it a shot. Can't hurt to try I suppose.
(I do also have a CD and license for Win8.1 OEM, so I could try using that as well. Again, can't hurt)

Yeah, the PSU was a budget thing like most of the rest of it, and I will absolutely be updating that before I get a new GPU.

It's 1920x1080, 60hz, and I would like to eventually go to 4k, but most likely not very soon. A 1080, while quite a bit overkill for standard 1080p60 gaming, would be more used in rendering videos/animations, and recording/streaming. (Should have specified that, sorry) That said, I'm waiting until the Vega line comes out before I make any decisions on that, since I'm more partial to buy an AMD card of around the same performance simply because I've just had a better experience with them and their drivers (Recent drivers anyway).

Yeah, I'm not going to expect a 100 fps increase immediately, and I'm fine with that.

Yeah, I've seen that it's essentially the same, but with hyperthreading.
Like I said earlier (and probably should have said in my original post, sorry), I also do videos and animations (and generally have a lot of stuff going on at once), so the hyperthreading would definitely help. I also just see it as a bit more "future-proof", if only slightly.

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Upgrading to 6700k, are these the best options?

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